


Phone A Friend

by Basmathgirl



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Cell Phones, Friendship/Love, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Episode: s04e13 Journey's End, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Romantic if you squint, Sobbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 16:11:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17227199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Basmathgirl/pseuds/Basmathgirl
Summary: A friend is only a phone call away, when you need help the most.[Set after Journey's End]





	Phone A Friend

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** all I own is my mobile phone contract.  
>  **A/N:** written for [hc_bingo](https//:hc_bingo.livejournal.com) round 9, to finish the challenge.

The phone rang; just as the Doctor knew it would. It had happened several times now. Reluctantly plucking it up, he didn’t say, “Hello,” but stood there silently.

On the other end of the line, a breathy voice asked, “Hello. Is anyone there?”

He continued to hold the receiver to his ear. It was a ‘she’ speaking to him, in sobbing tones, but he still resisted speaking.

“It’s me. Donna,” she stated, clutching the receiver close to her mouth. “They don’t know I’m calling you, but I found your number on my phone, in my contacts.”

She listened carefully and could make out the faint sound of someone, or something, breathing, so she continued to talk. “I’m… I’m not well, they tell me. A head injury. But I don’t remember a head injury. You’d think you’d at least remember some of the pain, but I don’t.”

He brought a hand up to cover his mouth, to stop any words escaping.

“They even claim I was in hospital,” she added. “Do they think I’m thick or something? Hospital, I tell you. No ‘get well soon’ cards, no sign of one of those plastic hospital identity bracelets; and get this, I even asked to see my medical records. That new patient information charter has its uses. Anyway. Nothing in there mentions a hospital stay; not even a trip to A&E. My mum and Gramps have been lying to me. And the worst part is… I don’t even know why.”

The sobs on the line made the Doctor clamp his lips together despite his urge to answer, to offer some crumb of comfort. Tears welled up in his eyes as he listened without being able to take her in his arms or even whisper words that would take the pain away.

But she heard him gulp, the only sign of compassion. Something within her knew that was all her listener would be able to offer. “Sorry,” she mumbled, desperately wiping some of her tears away. “You don’t want to hear all this. Not from a perfect stranger.” 

A thought struck her. “Although, I can’t be that much of a mystery if I have your number on my phone. We must have met at some time and exchanged numbers in the last year or so.”

He badly wanted to tell her that they had been oh so much more than that. Friends. Best friends. Traveling around the universe. Righting wrongs and bringing joy to each other. Instead, he held all that in. 

“If I’ve wronged you,” she began to quietly say, lancing through his hearts with her words, “then I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have done it on purpose. Friends mean a lot to me, you see. Once you’re my friend, that’s it, forever. So I’m assuming, since you’re giving me the silent treatment, that it was bad and I hurt you a great deal. I can’t remember any of it, so you’ll have to forgive me for not knowing the details. Just know this, if I could remember I’d be even sorrier still.”

Hearing her sad voice overlaid with his memories of wiping their precious friendship from her mind was almost his undoing. He almost bit through his finger in the effort to keep quiet on his end of the telephone line; but there was one important question that needed to be asked.

Putting on a strong Scottish accent, he softly uttered the question, “Why are you phoning me, Donna?”

Her relief at hearing a returning voice was almost palpable. “There you are. At last. Well. I feel a bit stupid now for phoning some random number, but every time I get something wrong someone tells me I need help. And I do. Need help. But I don’t know where to get it,” she pathetically confessed.

After a minute of silence, she begged, “Help me. Please help me.”

“I…” The answer floundered on his lips. What could he possibly say to help? 

Then her next words shook him to his very core.

“If this is you, Doctor,” she whispered, “you need to be here.”

“Tell me the time and date.” Switching to his normal voice, he assured her, “I’m on my way.”


End file.
